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Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy. Yes, it's real.

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Chinese Democracy is the album we thought we'd never hear, by the rock star we thought we'd never see again.

As Axl Rose unveils the infamous Chinese Democracy, Music Radar counts down 33 facts you need to know about the most expensive album ever made.

1. It's taken a third of Axl Rose's life

Lest we forget, the making of Chinese Democracy began at LA's Complex Studio in 1993, when Rose was a fresh-faced enfant terrible of 31. When it's released on November 24, he will be a middle-aged recluse of 46. If you'd had a baby when he hit 'record', your kid would now be sitting exams and stealing your cigarettes.

2. The world has soooo changed

Since 1993's The Spaghetti Incident?, the world has changed beyond belief. Back then, George Bush Snr was US President. The internet happened. The MP3 format was devised. Liam Gallagher, rock star, hadn't been invented and Kurt Cobain was hanging in there. Indeed, Guns N' Roses last albums of original material, Use You Illusion I and II, were released a week before Nivana's Nevermind in September 1991.

3. It was inspired by the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama: His favourite G N' R track is Patience. Probably.

Everything and everyone else has spun through Axl's revolving door, but the title of Chinese Democracy has stuck. Announcing the title track at a 2001 show in Vegas, the frontman revealed it was inspired by the 1997 film Kundun, which documents the exile of the Dalai Lama from communist China. Pretty deep stuff for a man who called his last album The Spaghetti Incident?

4. It shattered the classic G N' R lineup

When GN'R swaggered out of LA in 1985, their fierce unity suggested the band that bangs strippers together, sticks together. Chinese Democracy split the last gang in town in less than four years, with Slash departing under a cloud in 1996 and holding the door open for Matt Sorum and Duff McKagan.

Watch Slash talk about G N'R's glory days.

5. Axl hasn't shot the piano man (yet)

Aside from Chairman Rose, the sole survivor from the Use Your Illusion period is keyboard player Dizzy Reed. Keep your head down, Mr Reed…

6. You can't get the staff…

Sharon Maynard: provided spiritual guidance.

According to original A&R man Tom Zutaut, Axl insisted that everyone involved in Chinese Democracy was approved by his late spiritual therapist Sharon 'Yoda' Maynard (pictured). "You had to get a black and white picture to Axl's assistant and then you'd be vetted and told if you could work with him," says Zutaut.

7. It was a tough gig…

Zutaut also claims the induction process for any musicians involved re-recording every song off Appetite For Destruction.